On wednesdayI returned to the pits I had been scouting to have an hours lure fishing and prebait a swim with the corn and groundbait left over from the melbourne session. Chucking a lure around is a good way to figure out what the depth of various parts of the lake is like, the makeup of the bottom, and where any hidden snags and weedbeds are. Of course there is the bonus that you might raise a take or two - which makes it much more interesting then leading around.
On this occasion it seemed i was in luck, The green BigS plug was taken on the first cast by a small jack, mabe a couple of pounds in size - after a roll on the surface perhaps 10 seconds into the fight the plug came adrift. i guess the pike had let go and the hooks hadn't found a hold. I spent another 20 mins in this swim - got at least one other follow, but no takes.
I moved around this end of the pit into an awkward & cramped swim, perched on the bank above some rushes. Five minutes later the plug was taken by a second fish - a pike of around 5lb. after a short fight it was ready for the net, however when it saw the net it gave a quick shake of the head - the hooks came loose and he escaped back to the depths. After some cursing and a few minutes attempting for a retake I worked my way back towards the car through the swims of the adjacent pool. The water here was generally shallower, but I had no further action.
The weather was fully overcast, spitting with rain, but not really heavy enough to need a coat and the temp had been falling for a couple of days. fishing time was 19:40 - 20:40 -- popped in to Trent Kebabs for their special kebab for tea on the way home.
Thursday 27 May 2010
Monday 24 May 2010
out of the freezer and into the furnace!
what a difference a week makes, from shivering at close to freezing to scorching 28c...
this was my thermometer sat in full sun - im not exactly sure where it went off the chart - maybe 40c? anyway, once shaded it told me that the temp was 28. the water temp rose from 21 to 23c during the session - the fish had been spawning and as i was too hot to move i assumed the fish were feeling it too.
A late start (following an unpromptu BBQ on saturday night)saw scooting down the A453 to melbourne pool, visited here once before, but never fished it. It has a bit of a reputation for decent tench and is beautifully located - even if the proximity to East Midlands airport does periodically interupt the serenity of the place.
There was no wind to speak of - just a slight breeze which at that time was blowing in to the road stretch. a walk around with polaroids showed a few carp moving around in the SE corner and i spotted another pair of carp and a bream in the sw corner. It seemed from the accumilation of floating algae which plagues this pool that the recent prevailing wind had been into this corner I so i balled in some groundbait with dead maggots, corn and pellets and fished with open ended feeders and double maggot on a 18 on on the left hand rod and the other with corn on a 16. The hours passed by without so much as a blip from either rod, and the drifting weed would encase the feeders with every retrieve. I switched the corn rod to a 10 mm tutti boilie and eventually to double maggot, fished over a bed of about 100 dead maggots thrown into my right hand margin. With the action being so slow i was getting a bit creative with the photography and just as i took the picture below the reel screeched into life and a fish was on...
this was my thermometer sat in full sun - im not exactly sure where it went off the chart - maybe 40c? anyway, once shaded it told me that the temp was 28. the water temp rose from 21 to 23c during the session - the fish had been spawning and as i was too hot to move i assumed the fish were feeling it too.
A late start (following an unpromptu BBQ on saturday night)saw scooting down the A453 to melbourne pool, visited here once before, but never fished it. It has a bit of a reputation for decent tench and is beautifully located - even if the proximity to East Midlands airport does periodically interupt the serenity of the place.
There was no wind to speak of - just a slight breeze which at that time was blowing in to the road stretch. a walk around with polaroids showed a few carp moving around in the SE corner and i spotted another pair of carp and a bream in the sw corner. It seemed from the accumilation of floating algae which plagues this pool that the recent prevailing wind had been into this corner I so i balled in some groundbait with dead maggots, corn and pellets and fished with open ended feeders and double maggot on a 18 on on the left hand rod and the other with corn on a 16. The hours passed by without so much as a blip from either rod, and the drifting weed would encase the feeders with every retrieve. I switched the corn rod to a 10 mm tutti boilie and eventually to double maggot, fished over a bed of about 100 dead maggots thrown into my right hand margin. With the action being so slow i was getting a bit creative with the photography and just as i took the picture below the reel screeched into life and a fish was on...
on a 5lb hooklength and size 16 the carp gave a good account of itself, and the weed didn't help matters, but a few minutes later a dark and old looking leather carp was in the net. The scales wouldn't give me a double, settling at 9lb 14oz. 
fished on until sundown with no further bites... the tench will have to wait until another day.
fished on until sundown with no further bites... the tench will have to wait until another day.Monday 17 May 2010
new season - new venues
I spent an afternoon scouting around for some new fishing spots - walked a couple of miles of the Grantham canal, the polaroids revelaled some decent shoals of tiny roach, rudd and perch, but for the most part is was much to shallow to be worth fishing and the very skinny 20inch pike I spotted was almost certainly the top of the food chain. The Lady Bay stretch in particular is looking very sorry for itself, the shallow water is choked with blanketweed and a not insignificant amount of litter.
I then took a drive to a pit that I had vowed last year to target for tench before the rivers open. I was a little suprised to find a few anglers there, as on previous visits I have had the place to myself. Its been a hard water for me in the past, stock levels are low and in many respects its a bit of an unknown quantity - but its got specimen water written all over it. I climbed a few trees for a good look at the water but there was no sign of any fish moving, I did spot some interesting gravel bars I had not noticed before and noted some swims that i might need to bait up over the next couple of weeks...
Sunday 16 May 2010
New Season - New Success
Spent this weekend catching up with me old mate Phill, we had decided to meet up for a session at leamington lakes in Gloucestershire, firstly because it is a halfway house between our respective stomping grounds and secondly because it has a dedicated tench lake.
The weather had been cold for the proceeding days so the prospects weren't that good - and we had to start on the carp lake as there is no night fishing on the tench pool. There was no one fishing the lake when we arrived so we had the pick of swims and started fishing in earnest at about 5pm. The only run either of us had came to one of my rods fishing double tutti-frutti boilies, screaming off at about 6:45pm it was a PB common weighing in at 12lb 3oz. >
The temperature dropped off rapidly after sundown - wearing 3 pairs of trousers, and 5 layers on my top, along with hat & gloves kept the worst of the cold at bay - as did the rum in my hot chocolate...but an overnight min of 2 degrees was distinctly unseasonable & uncomfortable - I gave up any attempt at sleep just before 5am to watch the sunrise
I got Phill up about an hour later by triggering his alarms with a spare spool of line and a bomb - and i was still chuckling to myself when we started targeting the tench at about 8am. Fishing into a freezing headwind made for very uncomfortable fishing, but double red maggot under a waggler yielded a 2 1/2 lb tench at about 10am. that was it for me but Phill picked up another couple of tench after losing one on a feeder set up. Called time at about midday and headed home for some much needed sleep
The weather had been cold for the proceeding days so the prospects weren't that good - and we had to start on the carp lake as there is no night fishing on the tench pool. There was no one fishing the lake when we arrived so we had the pick of swims and started fishing in earnest at about 5pm. The only run either of us had came to one of my rods fishing double tutti-frutti boilies, screaming off at about 6:45pm it was a PB common weighing in at 12lb 3oz. >
The temperature dropped off rapidly after sundown - wearing 3 pairs of trousers, and 5 layers on my top, along with hat & gloves kept the worst of the cold at bay - as did the rum in my hot chocolate...but an overnight min of 2 degrees was distinctly unseasonable & uncomfortable - I gave up any attempt at sleep just before 5am to watch the sunrise
I got Phill up about an hour later by triggering his alarms with a spare spool of line and a bomb - and i was still chuckling to myself when we started targeting the tench at about 8am. Fishing into a freezing headwind made for very uncomfortable fishing, but double red maggot under a waggler yielded a 2 1/2 lb tench at about 10am. that was it for me but Phill picked up another couple of tench after losing one on a feeder set up. Called time at about midday and headed home for some much needed sleep
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